Demonstrate Your Competence

You can say you are the smartest, most competent, most wonderful administrative expert in the world, but if those statements aren’t backed up–evidenced–in all that you do in the most visible, tangible ways, your message will fall on deaf ears.

Everything you do is a demonstration of your professional competence. Every action, communication, effort and follow-up is an example of the level of skill, awareness, intelligence, professionalism and critical thinking ability you possess.

Even the visual presentation you provide, be it in your personal appearance or the design of your website, is communicating certain messages, either positive or negative, about you as a professional.

When someone doesn’t know a thing about you, they are unconsciously looking at any and all evidence of what you’re about. And they make assessments (yup, you can call ‘em judgments) about you instantly, without even thinking, based on what you show them.

Think about it.

A prospective client doesn’t know anything about you, even less if they aren’t coming to you on referral. If your website is sloppy, they will assume your work is sloppy, too.

If there are misspellings, punctuation errors and poor grammar used, they are going to wonder whether you have the most basic of skills to provide professional services to them.

If you don’t take care in the messages you write or can’t seem to follow the simplest of directions, they are immediately going to correlate that with what it will be like to work with you–and probably pass.

Understand the dynamics involved in the prospect-provider relationship. It’s not the prospective client’s job to waste their time (and they won’t) trying to figure out if someone really is competent if all other indications tell them that’s not the case. Nor will they second-guess the poor image or example you present. Trust me, they are going to take you at face value and assume that your services are amateur, sub-par and not at a professional level.

That’s why it’s really important to pay attention to the details. You have to show up, in everything you do, in a way that clearly demonstrates your professional competence and the kind of experience they will have if they choose to work with you.

DANIELLE KEISTER is an industry mentor, business catalyst and founder of the Administrative Consultants Association. I help women in the administrative support profession put their business britches on — because when you run a business, you aren't anyone's assistant. I'm on a mission to show you how to kick business butt, get better clients and start making the money you and your family deserve. Subscribe to the blog for more of my straight-talking, no-nonsense brand of business-building savvy and insights every week.

2 Responses

I enjoy reading your articles so much. But when they hit close to home (business), they resonate more to me and my business. Once again, you are so “right on” with this assessment. This is a definite “must read”.